Branwilde

the following is a report sent to me by Sigmund of Yew Gate Vendors:

Good Evening all, Sigmund Sauer here of Yew Gate Vendors…

It seems, Last Saturday evening, in the city of Yew, we had a bit of a ruckus. There are rumors of many houses falling down with lots of gold piles and loot falling out all over the ground. After a little Q&A I found out that Friends of Yagyu may be at the center of the event. So I went out and found Zion, Yagyu’s son. The following is the conversation we had:

Sigmund
Knock Knock ..

Zion
*door creaks open* Yeeesssss

Sigmund
Just a nosey neighbor wanting to ask a question or few…

Zion
Sure go ahead.

Sigmund
I understand there was a ruckus in Yew last week ... Do you know anything about this ?

Zion
No, No. I'm innocent of everything *smiles*. It would seem that there was a large wind blowing though the Yew area, knocking down houses left and right. Word has it that it may have been related to all this blackrock hunting, though that is just rumor.

Sigmund
Hmmmm. Rumor has it that only the Friends of Yagyu houses actually fell. Mind telling how that could happen ?

Zion
Must have been poor house construction!!
Really though, the houses all fell because they were so over loaded with items and gold that the foundations just gave out. With the help of several Guilds, we were able to spread over 125million worth of gold and items though out 45 different houses!

Sigmund
Wow.. that must have been a chore.. Please elaborate a bit. Who was actually involved in the planning / set up? Who was the brain behind this great thing?

Zion
Aye it was a big project that was put together over the course of several months. Those involved were the members of Yew Gate Resources, Myself, Yew Gate Auctions and vendors, Edgar Figaro of S/I, Sigmund, Meil &
Piper of YGV, and of course Yagyu and all his many friends!! The brains behind the project were Yagyu and I. We originally set it up to be a 5 house event, just dropping 5 houses, but as we went though more and more of our houses and saw all the items we were not using we decided to give it away for others to use. So after the first 5 houses were full, we expanded, and eventfully stopped at 45 houses. We decided to start including gold when we did an inventory of the gold that Yew Gate Resources had and noticed that over the last year we have done very well, thanks to our many customers. So we decided to give even more back to the community as our way of saying thanks for the great year.

Sigmund
How many people attended the event, any clue?

Zion
Edgar and Yew Gate Auctions were kind enough to host the event start up at their auction house, and they were able to get a rough head count, 120 plus, people that attended the event.

Sigmund
Who's idea and how did the book drop thing work ?

Zion
That idea was all Yagyu's. We wanted to give out some very nice high value items, but wanted everyone to have an equal chance to get them. So instead of just putting these items into the houses to drop, Yagyu came up with the book idea. It worked by taking hundreds of books and placing them in the houses, however 25 of the books were marked with a serial # and the words grand prize. These books were then brought back to the auction house to be validated. Each winning book increased your chance to get a higher level reward, With there being 5 levels total. Bring back 5 of the correct books and you were able to choose from several items, including a Charger of the Fallen, 5 million in gold, 60k of each mage regent and such.

Sigmund
Were there any notable or funny things that happened during the event that needs to be told?

Zion
There were several houses that other people had placed in the last few weeks and had named “Friends of Yagyu”. People at the event were huddled around them thinking they would fall, so we had to go around and tell everyone that those houses were fakes. Everyone took it very well and just moved onto the next spot.

Another thing that surprised me and reflects well on Lake Superior is how well everyone acted and behaved. Everyone was kind and considerate, especially at the auction house during the book turn in. The line at one point was out the front door and to the front yard lol. But everyone took their turn and waited with a smile!

Sigmund
Were the results what you expected?

Zion
The results exceeded our expectations. We were very pleased with the turnout and all the help that everyone involved put in. Many people saw old friends, made new ones and had a great time .One thing we noticed this afternoon, someone had tamed a Llama and named it "Thank you Yagyu" and left it outside the Yew Gate Resources, we thought that was very nice *smiles*

Sigmund
In hind sight, is there anything that you would have done differently?

Zion
Get better foundations for the houses so that they don't fall in high winds!! lol

No really, we think everything went very well, we were very pleased and there was not much to change. We had a great turnout and had a great supporting team. We don't think it could have gone any better!

Sigmund
Any advice you have for someone wanting to put on an event of this high caliber?

Zion
Only thing I would tell someone wanting to put together an event is to plan ahead and get a good network of people around you to help out. Without the help of everyone involved there is no way we could have pulled it off like we did. Remember why you’re doing an event like this, it’s to give back to the community and to promote fun. So just have fun in planning it, and have fun during it!

Sigmund
I noticed this morning several new houses around Yew. Do you think that this will help the local economy?

Zion
Yes I do, some great people were able to get some nice spots around the area and today were building and placing vendors and getting their shops set up. For awhile yew gate area was slow and not much traffic, in the last year the yew gate vendor network has been able to build and grow the area. With the new neighbors setting up shop we have high hopes for Yew Gate and expect them all to do well.

Sigmund
Do you have any plans for future events?

Zion
Oh there are always plans ;-) always working on some ideas to help the community, stay tuned to the Yew Gate area. You never know when another house will drop!

Sigmund
I really appreciate your time. Do you have any last thoughts about our game, or anything more to share with the readers?

Zion
We appreciate you taking your time to ask these questions. Last thoughts......well I hope they are not my last *smiles*. We are looking forward to the future of UO and the exciting new things coming out in the future. Kingdom Reborn and many of the fixes going into the game of late should really boost the community. It’s nice to see progress being done on a game we all love. Only thing to share with your readers is to remember that this is a game, but it’s a game we all come to love and stick with. So remember to just have fun, don't take the game to seriously and enjoy it for what it is!

Sigmund
Thank you very much.
.
Zion
Thank you and God bless!


Soon after that I located Piper of YGV Auctions and Edgar of S/I. We had this conversation:

Sigmund
Would you give me a rundown on the happenings for the Event?

Piper
Well Zion came along with Edgar, to YGV Auction house, to tell everyone want was going on. The house was packed and there were pack horses and bugs every where out front. I could not even recall in, I had to run up from the
moongate. Anyways, they told everyone that the Yagyu Friends houses were going to start falling all over Yew. The falling houses had a lot of good stuff to loot along with books for redeeming special prizes. We kept trying to get people to head out to find the houses; finely the auction house was pretty much empty. Shortly, houses started to fall one after another and people were running every where grabbing everything

Edgar
Yea, it was quite the event. Over a hundred million gold in goods was dropped. Well over 120 people from many different shards came. It was quite amazing.

Sigmund
What were the Special Books?

Piper
The books would be tickets used to hand out the grand prizes

Sigmund
Who were all the prime players in setting up and running the event ?

Piper
Yagyu, His son Zion, Meil, Edgar and I and YGR just added items to plots when we had time. Yagyu and Zion did most of the work. They got the plots, and added a lot of stuff to the plots. Meil got the water barrels to put into the houses so new plots could not be immediately added and impede the looting. Meil was friended to the houses so we could add stuff to all the houses. Ed helped add a lot of stuff to the plots as well. Then once the houses fell people started to bring in there books to YGV Auction to see if they won any of the special grand prizes.

Edgar
My role initially was to help stock some houses, get the word out, typical event stuff. So I mostly stocked houses until the big day, where I was the guy who started the event and then told people whether their tickets were winners or not.

Sigmund
What were some of the top prizes that could be won with the books?

Piper
If anyone brought in 5 winning books they could win the Charger of the Fallen, 5 million in gold, 60 k of each reagent. But those were just the top prizes. There were dyed lamp posts in sets, Taint, Tokuno minors. There were also Checks, Powder of Fortification, and so many things. No one brought in 5 winners at one time so those prizes were not claimed. But Zion and Yagyu donated the 3 top prizes to be given away as prizes for our up coming Christmas Auction Event.

Sigmund
Nice...

Piper
I have them here and they can still be won at the YGV Christmas Event.

Sigmund
Are there any notable things that happened during the running of the event that I should share with the readers?

Edgar
I can say I was impressed with all the people that showed up. We literally had not a single empty seat at the YGV Auction house before it started, and at least 50-60 packhorses and blue bugs around. It was quite a sight to behold.

Piper
Rat on Acid lost his runebook in all the mess he dropped it by mistake and would like it returned lol.

Sigmund
Is there any advice you would give to someone planning an event of this caliber in the future?

Piper
To plan for anything to happen, never get overwhelmed by it all ask for help when you needed it but most of all make sure you have fun planning it as well. The line to turn in books was all the way down to the stable next to YGV Auction House.

Edgar
Aye, just make sure you have a good crew of likeminded people who have fun making fun for others. If you keep that in mind anything you try at will be fun.

Sigmund
I noticed a bunch of new houses in Yew this morning. Do you think that this will help the local economy?

Edgar
I hope so. The merchants in Yew put this event on to show our appreciation for the customers that come to us every day. Yew offers some great shops that are typically much cheaper than Luna, and there's room for more.

Piper
I think it will bring more people back to Yew and bring in those wanting to run a business with out having to pay 50 to 100k for a vendor in Luna.

Sigmund
Tell me a little about the upcoming Auction Event that YGV and S/I is sponsoring.

Piper
Oh that is going to be a blast, We have 3 hours of out of this world items to auction off. There will be Huge Prizes, Great gifts. Prizes are Charger of the Fallen , 60k of each reagent., 5mil in gold. We will have two 10mil questions and Gift Bag surprises.. “You Have Been Naughty” bags made from a made from Full set of Coal armor full and so many things. It will take place on December 17th, Sunday at 6pm CST. Auctioneers are Edger and Macklin. It will not be held at either YGV or at S/I, I am building a new place just for this event.

Edgar
This is going to be a great auction. There will be lots of super items for sale and millions of prizes.

Sigmund
Thank You. Do you have any last thoughts about UO?

Edgar
Sure. Live by this principal in UO and your wealth will be imaginable. “Pay It Forward – If someone does something nice for you, do nice for 3 other people.. Spread the word.”

Piper
Yeah let the OSI owned houses fall already! *smiles*


The Next Day, The Reaction from Folks at West Brit Bank.

Mako
It was a good event, well presented. My only concern that some of the houses didn't fall. But everyone was very well mannered.

MAX[DOOM]
It was nice to notify people about houses falling. I was busy trying to place a new house. My guild liked it a lot.

Deanna
Very exciting. This was my first time for this type of event. It was funny how people ran around everywhere; I just wish I could have done better.

Janet
I got a lot of cool stuff. Picked up a lot of gold and even found some cool furniture for my house.

Mystical
I got to place a new house 17x12. Close to a gate too. SWEET !!!


Thanks you Sigmund and Friends for such a great event and report. Don't miss the December 17th Christmas Auction at 6:30 in a Special New Location!

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